Friday, March 16, 2007

A Cal Fan's Notes: The Naked Truth

Bares,

Saturday, I hope you can all join Ayr, Burlap, Redwood, Zachery Running Wolf, and the rest of us (see news release below) as we cast off the neo-revisionist capitalist pig bourgeoisie symbols of status and uptight hang ups (“clothes” to those of you from Stanford State), and rid ourselves of our inhibitions as we do our small part to let it all hang out to save the naturally planted oaks from the Great Satin who would cut them down that college children might have a place to play, exercise, and compete (competition is so middle class).

Apparently, William Burroughs' literary classic Naked Lunch will be performed live.

The “oak grove” will be clothing optional during this precious cellulite moment, as Cal, once again, takes mankind to another level. Each oak’s sagging branches will no doubt welcome fellow travelers, as squirrels everywhere pat their bellies, and 100’s of porcupines come out of the woods to show solidarity with the rest of the little pricks.

Only at Cal. What a country! Included below is Sam Whiting’s article on Rugby. Great article, but How’d you like to be the father of a daughter at Cal and know that one of her best friend’s is Hawley’s, kid?

And you wonder why we drink?

Speaking of Kids, Chucky sends in that Kapp’s kid, Will is coming to Cal. How cool is that? Greg and john have passed on news on Tedford’s contract—bare woman are playing Notre Dame, and Spring Ball is just around the corner.

See you all there.

Go bare,

Jeffrey Earl Warren ‘70

San Francisco photographer Jack Gescheidt plans to photograph the nakedpeople posing with oaks, redwoods, laurels and other trees next toMemorial Stadium. About eight protesters have been perched in the treessince Dec. 2, hoping to derail the University of California's plan toremove some of the trees to build an athletic training center.

The photo will be part of Gescheidt's Tree Spirit Project, a collectionof mostly black-and-white images of naked people and trees.

In 1992, UC banned nudity on campus in the wake of the au naturel jauntsof student Andrew Martinez, also known as Naked Guy. UC police could notbe reached for comment Tuesday. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/04/CMGMEO008G1.DTLIn a primitive locker room in Memorial Stadium, Cal waits to host St. Mary's in the primitive sport of rugby. The Golden Bears sit quietly on hard wood, but if you pull Lou Stanfill and Colin Hawley off this long, blue bench, they tell the story of the long, blue line that is college rugby at Cal. It started back in high school in the Sacramento Valley, where Stanfill was a senior football stud and Hawley a scrawny sophomore. One day, Stanfill got a call from Hawley's father, asking him to help turn his kid into a Cal rugby player. This request was inconvenient for Stanfill, because it meant a 100-mile-round trip into farm country just to get the kid home after practice. Then again, Stanfill had Cal rugby designs of his own, and he knew the dad making the request was the legendary Loren Hawley, the best player on perhaps the best Cal rugby team of them all, in 1965. So Stanfill took on Colin Hawley as a project, having him stay overnight when he tired of the drive. Four years later, they are a senior and a sophomore all over again in the 125th anniversary season for Cal rugby. Hawley, 19, already has his varsity letter with four years ahead of him. Stanfill, 21, a two-time All-American and reigning MVP of the national championships, is building a legend that will be right up there with Hawley Sr., 42 seasons later. "It's a big deal, that's for sure," Stanfill says of the 125th season. "An honor to be a part of such a legacy." By noon on this cold January Saturday, the pregame ritual has been going on for three hours at Witter Rugby Field, which is above the football stadium and deeper into Strawberry Canyon. Reserve players -- who could be starters on most college rugby clubs -- have been setting up the stands and climb-ing the Cyclone fence to hang the 22 National collegiate championship banners, ending with 2004, 2005 and 2006. In another season or two they will run out of fence. A rugby side is 15 players, but Cal has 50 or 60 parts that are interchangeable. This is an advantage in a weekend tournament, such as the final four, which tests a team's depth. At the UCLA tournament earlier this season, Cal introduced a different lineup for each of six games and won all six by a combined score of 250-18. Fifty-one players saw action and not one was a ringer from Cal's co-championship football team. It wasn't like this when Loren Hawley played in the 1960s or Head Coach Jack Clark played in the 1970s. Back then the rugby roster was filled out after the last football game. "I would say there must have been 15 or 20 of us off the football team who would just go right to rugby," recalls Clark, an offensive lineman. Games were played in the winter mud in the deserted stadium, and nobody seemed to notice. There were rugby teams at maybe 50 schools, heavy on Ivy Leaguers and beer guts. A tournament in Pebble Beach mixed club and college teams to crown an unofficial national champion, then they drained some kegs and sang some songs. A favorite was "Jonestown," a lyrical update of Petula Clark's "Downtown." Then in 1980, the first National Collegiate Championships was played in Iowa and Cal won it, and the three after it. The sport has since grown to 400 college teams in three divisions, but most are loosely organized recreation sports. Cal is the only men's rugby team with full varsity status among 327 Division I schools. From a coach's standpoint, being a varsity sport means that he is a fulltime employee of the university. From a player's standpoint, it means they get their gear washed after practice. But it doesn't mean there are scholarships. Out of 27 varsity sports (13 men and 14 women) at Cal, rugby is the only one that offers no financial aid to its athletes. In that sense, it is the purest of all intercollegiate sports. Football and basketball players will walk out on a full scholarship as soon as they are marketable. No rugby player ever leaves school early for the pros, and some stay late. Because it is governed not by the NCAA, but by USA Rugby, they are eligible to play five years. Both Stanfill and Hawley plan to do that. Unless the Eagles (national touring team) call, there is nowhere up from here. The Old Blues -- the Cal alumni club that was once so cool it was hired to endorse BMW in a TV commercial -- is defunct. "Cal rugby is a one-of-a-kind experience," says Hawley. Proof came at the Cal-Washington football game in October on an Indian Summer afternoon. At halftime, the scholar-athletes from all 27 varsity sports partook in a promenade across the field, each carrying a placard as if this were the Olympic Opening Ceremony. Some sports were lightly represented and most athletes were lightly dressed in the heat. The men's varsity basketball team, for instance, was represented by just one player, the one carrying the sign. At the end, after standing in the end zone and waiting for about 15 minutes, here came the rugby team, all in khaki slacks, brown shoes and belt, white button-down shirts and their varsity sweaters -- a heavy, dark-blue Fred MacMurray cardigan with 15 gold stripes on the sleeves. Only a rugby player would be caught dead in these "Oski sweaters," as Stanfill calls them. Cal rugby goes out of its way to fight against stereotype. The graduation rate is 98 percent or better, and the curriculum would seem to include finishing school. When you meet players they will wear out your hand shaking it before, during and after a conversation. They don't even wear rugby shirts. The game jerseys look more like what Jack Nicholson would wear in a romantic comedy. The rugby dressing room sits right on the fault line and is where they stick the visiting team for football games, to get them rattled. Built in the 1920s, it has all the amenities of a 1920s locker room. A Cal football recruit would never set foot in here. But rugby has a longer tradition at Cal, and its players appreciate history. "The locker room we have here, it suits us just fine," Stanfill says. "We don't want anything we can't pay for ourselves." On game day, everything is regimented and a moment before noon, the room goes silent. At noon, straight up, Coach Clark walks in and heads for a chalkboard. "Headphones off," he says in passing. Then he turns and says simply "effort," letting the word fall heavy on their shoulders. It is early in the season, and St. Mary's, ranked No. 6 in the nation, is the first test of the No. 1-ranked Bears. "If you're not absolutely f -- miserable today, then we are not where we need to be as a team," Clark says, breaking his own silence. "St. Mary's is out there waiting to ambush you right now." To reach the rugby field from here, the quickest route is down through the stands on the west side of Memorial Stadium, across the field, back up the east side and across Stadium Rimway Road. It is an awkward up-and-down commute, but nobody complains. Getting out of the football stadium and into its own designated rugby stadium 10 years ago was the best thing to happen to Cal rugby in 125 years. A rugby match in front of 5,000 fans in a 70,000-seat bowl is depressing. A rugby match in front of 5,000 fans squeezed onto risers or bunched along the end lines is the way it was meant to be. "The field is critical to us," says Clark. "If you don't have a field that is named for you, over time it will be a parking lot or it will be artificial turf or it will be some other thing." It isn't a perfect pitch, like Stanford's, where the Final Four will be played in May. There is a bit of a slant. "An old oak tree hangs over one of the touch lines," says Clark. "A ball could get caught up in that oak tree. That's what makes it a little bit of a cathedral, like Fenway Park." The cathedral -- which includes an old men's room from the football stadium converted to a classy field house -- is named for its major benefactor, the Dean Witter brokerage family. The 12th Witter has just entered the program. David Witter is a freshman and, like his classmates on the team, is expected to be there at 9 a.m. on a Saturday hanging banners, selling sweatshirts, politely passing out programs. When the match starts, it becomes obvious why football and rugby have drifted apart. Football has become a television show before a live studio audience. No Cal rugby player was ever penalized for excessive celebration. There is no styling, no chirping. "We don't have anything to say to the other team," Stanfill says. Coach Clark's pregame pep talk notwithstanding, Cal is slow to embrace the concept of being "absolutely f -- miserable today." For a tiny school, St. Mary's has a strong rugby tradition of its own, going back to 1888. The Gaels score first and seem to be playing with more urgency. Then Coach Clark starts pacing on the sidelines. He is so steeped in the sport's English roots that he exhorts his side by yelling, "C'mon lads." Rugby is often described as "organized chaos." Once the big ball gets buried in a pile of bodies, it can be as hard to find as the puck at an ice hockey game. An easy way to follow the action is to get a fix on the dominating Stanfill, who is 6 feet 4 inches and 245 pounds, and the dashing Hawley, 6-foot-3 inches and 189 pounds, and stay with them. As a visual aid, Stanfill is the only one with gold shoes and Hawley is the only one with blue long sleeves. Still skinny, Hawley is a finesse player, a dancer and a twister when he has the ball. As a defender, he'll tackle by grabbing a jersey and pulling. When Stanfill finds an opposing ballcarrier, that person stays found. From the stands you can see his tackles, and an instant later you can hear them, like thunder. Midway through the second half, Cal's 48th consecutive victory against a U.S. college is at hand (now 58 games over three years) but they are still hitting the St. Mary's guys as hard as they will hit anybody all season. With five minutes left, a St. Mary's forward takes a pass and comes straight at Hawley. The Gael lowers his shoulder and the top of his head hits Hawley just above the left ear. You can hear the crack, like one of Stanfill's tackles. The final score is 33-12. After the post-game handshake and huddle with the coach, Hawley goes over and lies down behind the Cal bench, holding his head. He may have a concussion. Still woozy, he gets up and walks among the Cal parents, looking for his dad. Loren Hawley, 64, has had radical surgery for throat cancer and can express himself only by writing notes on a clipboard. Asked if he was worried when his son cracked heads he jots down, "My son played better after that happened." Then he feigns to kick him while he's down. When Stanfill comes along, he expresses himself another way, with a bear hug. "They really love each other," Hawley Jr. says. Asked if he was worried when his protege cracked heads, Stanfill jokes, "Well, he always was fragile." By now, the field is in the shade, the temperature is dropping and a cold wind is coming off the bay. A hot shower is calling, but first there is the reserve-grade game, to watch in its entirety. They don't call it the junior varsity, because that connotes a lower status, and players move back and forth. Team captain Chase Brogan walks over to round up his "First 15" to watch the reserves. "Show support" is all he has to say, and stiff muscles ease onto cold aluminum benches, including Hawley with a possible concussion. Cal's reserve squad may be the second-best team in college rugby. Before the end of the first half against the St. Mary's reserves, it is 48-0. At halftime Hawley has his head wound checked. He passes the test, which is to recite the score of the game. No further treatment necessary. The final score is 90-0, but the day is not over. It takes half an hour to clean up the grounds, take down the banners, move the stands. Then the entire team lines up at one end and walks the length of the field, fixing divots in the grass. It is dusk when they walk back across Stadium Rimway, down the steps and into their dank and dim locker room. But that is still not the end of it. There is the ice bath a third of the way around the stadium in the training room. Stanfill eases himself into the tub, as does Hawley, head still pounding and ear swollen from his collision. He only lasts five minutes. Stanfill can stand 10. "An ice bath makes you feel like a new man," he says. "It keeps the inflammation down, calms the muscles and makes you a lot less sore." It is dark when they finally walk out into the Berkeley lights. In all, an eight-hour day to play an 80-minute game.E-mail Sam Whiting at swhiting@sfchronicle.com.

Here is a link to today’s Chronicle story about Tedford’s proposed contract extension. I hope he gets the maximum because that will require the Bears are National Champions. It is surprising to me that Jeff’s current base contract is $167k (and proposed to go to $225K) and the current “talent fee” of $1,332K (proposed to go to $1,575K) is being picked up by Nike. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/03/14/SPG0TOKTT71.DTL

Go Bears!

I know I had heard that the approval by the regents was basically an automatic. But still, given it is CAL sports and we have protestors in the trees outside Memorial Stadium, I had to wonder. But all is well for now, football fans......."The UC Board of Regents on Thursday unanimously approved Cal football coach Jeff Tedford's contract extension, which could pay him more than $4 million in the fifth year and keep him in Berkeley until 2013. There wasn't much discussion about details of the extension among the regents. The contract was simply read aloud with the only interjection coming during the reading of the "accomplishments" portion. When it was mentioned that Tedford will earn a $150,000 bonus if Cal wins the national championship, a regent exclaimed,

"Go Bears!"

John Madden has a daily interview with John Madden. Today Madden discussed the NFL combine and then was joined in his interview by Chuck Muncie. Muncie said some positive things about Cal football and shared some jokes about the tree sitters but mostly he discussed the high school combine with which he is involved.

About Me

I write a Weekly Column for the St. Helena Star and have a Weekly Radio Show on KVON 1440am (KVON.com) on Wednesday's at 5pm. My Columns are about daily small town life in rural St. Helena. I'm old school and often write about the "old Days." I'm a Capitalist an believe in individual liberty and the rugged individualist. I also do a weekly blog on my trips to the Cal Bears Football games--but you gotta luv the Bears to like it. Having no marketable skills I sell dirt (vineyards wineries, ranches and estates), having formerly been a Creative Director and Copy Writer in New York and S.F.